Air handling equipment for performing a variety of functions on articles such as cans is known in the art. For example, systems are known for conveying (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,369,005, 4,732,513, 4,828,434, 5,129,765, and 5,222,840), conveying and transferring (U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,245), conveying and single filing (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,122,016, 4,730,955, 4,500,229, and 4,730,956), conveying and dividing (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,347,022 and 5,009,550), and conveying and nesting cans (U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,419.
Virtually all of the known functions of air can handling equipment, examples of some of which are set out above, include some accumulation of cans or can contact. Can accumulation and contact is necessary in order that can lines operate with a substantially continuous flow of cans. This accumulation of cans, however, may cause can denting, requiring removal of the damaged cans and possibly leading to discontinuities in can line flow. Accumulation may also cause downed cans leading to jamming and damage of can line equipment. As food and beverage cans become thinner, plants are experiencing increasing numbers of damaged cans, especially as line speed increases, which exacerbates these can plant inefficiencies by necessitating more frequent line shutdowns to remove downed cans and repair jammed line equipment.
Further, curves in the conveyor line tend to cause unintended accumulation, and thus damage, as the articles tend to cling to the outer side of curved conveyor portions.
What is desired therefore is a can air conveyor which conveys cans at high speed yet permits accumulation or contact of cans without undue damage. An air conveyor which moves cans away from the outer side of curved portions and distributes them more evenly across the conveyor width is also desired.